The second most disconcerting thing that happens to me regularly here in France: I'll say Bonjour to a stranger, and he or she will immediately reply in English. How do they know? It's not as if I am wearing sweatpants and a University of Illinois baseball cap.
After I spent several weeks befuddled, somebody finally clued me in. Diabolically, French loads into its most routine and commonplace greeting not one but two sounds that don't occur in English. It is a perfect shibboleth. There's the nasal o in bon, of course, and then there's the French r, which is less a consonant than a phlegm-clearing maneuver. Each of these sounds takes a lot of practice. The o, in particular, benefits from practice in front of a mirror. Whenever I think I am rounding my lips enough, I am not.
(An aside: It feels invasive to have to use my lips this much in speaking. Dang it, I've got boundaries!)
The #1 most disconcerting thing is, of course, when strangers address me in English even before I've opened my mouth. Yikes. I really do try hard to avoid giving out blatant clues that I am American: when in public, I don't wear shorts, chew gum, or display firearms. Maybe I should start smoking.
...or, you could go completely the other direction and wear a keffiyeh or Abay, or perhaps a lungi, or even a kilt. Sure, they'd still know you weren't French, but the joke would be on them when they started talking to you in something other than English.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it would be *really* discomforting if that didn't work either.